Cloud computing is a term used to describe both a platform and type of application. A cloud computing platform dynamically provisions, configures,
reconfigures, and de-provisions servers as needed. Servers in the cloud can be physical machines or virtual machines. Advanced clouds typically include
other computing resources such as Storage Area Networks (SANs), network equipment, firewall and other security devices.
Cloud computing also describes applications that are extended to be accessible through the Internet. These cloud applications use large data centers and
powerful servers that host Web applications and Web services. Anyone with a suitable Internet connection and a standard browser can access a cloud
application.
Definition
A cloud is a pool of virtualized computer resources. A cloud can:
• Host a variety of different workloads, including batch-style back-end jobs and interactive, user-facing applications
• Allow workloads to be deployed and scaled-out quickly through the rapid provisioning of virtual machines or physical machines
• Support redundant, self-recovering, highly scalable programming models that allow workloads to recover from many unavoidable hardware/software
failures
• Monitor resources use in real time to enable rebalancing of allocations when needed
Cloud computing environments support grid computing by quickly providing physical and virtual servers on which the grid applications can run. Cloud
computing should not be confused with grid computing. Grid computing involves dividing a large task into many smaller tasks that run in parallel on
separate servers. Grids require many computers, typically in the thousands, and commonly use servers, desktops, and laptops.
Clouds also support nongrid environments, such as a three-tier Web architecture running standard or Web 2.0 applications. A cloud is more than a
collection of computer resources because a cloud provides a mechanism to manage those resources. Management includes provisioning, change
requests, reimaging, workload rebalancing, deprovisioning, and monitoring.
Benefits
Cloud computing infrastructures can allow enterprises to achieve more efficient use of their IT hardware and software investments. They do this by
breaking down the physical barriers inherent in isolated systems, and automating the management of the group of system as a single entity. Cloud
computing is an example of an ultimately virtualized system, and a natural evolution for data centers that employ automated systems management,
workload balancing, and virtualization technologies. A cloud infrastructure can be a cost efficient model for delivering information services, reducing IT
management complexity, promoting innovation, and increasing responsiveness through real-time workload balancing. The cloud makes it possible to
launch Web 2.0 applications quickly and to scale up applications as much as needed when needed. The platform supports traditional Java TM and Linux,
Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack-based applications as well as new architectures such as MapReduce and the Google File System, which provide a
means to scale applications across thousands of servers instantly.
Large amounts of computer resource, in the form of XEN Virtual machines, can be provisioned and made available for new applications within minutes
instead of days or weeks. Developers can gain access to these resources through a portal and put them to use immediately. Several products are
available that provide virtual machine capabilities, including proprietary ones such as VMware, and open source alternatives, such as XEN.
Many customers are interested in cloud infrastructures to serve as platforms for innovation, particularly in countries that want to foster the development of
a highly skilled, high-tech work force. They want to provide startups and research organizations with an environment for idea exchange, and the ability to
rapidly develop and deploy new product prototypes.
Usage Scenarios
Cloud computing can play a significant role in a variety of areas including internal pilots, innovations, virtual worlds, e-business, social networks, and
search. Here we summarize several basic but important usage scenarios that highlight the breadth and depth of impact that cloud computing can have on
an enterprise.
Internal Innovation
Innovators request resource online through a simple Web interface. They specify a desired start and end dates for their pilot. A cloud resource
administrator approves or rejects the request. Upon approval, the cloud provisions the servers. The innovator has the resources available for use within a
few minutes or an hour depending on what type of resource was requested.
Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds require significant amounts of computing power, especially as those virtual spaces become large or as more and more users log in. Massively
Multiplayer Online Games (MMPOG) are a good example of significantly large virtual worlds. Several commercial virtual worlds have as many as nine million
registered users and hundreds and thousands of servers supporting these environments.
A company that hosts a virtual world could have real time monitors showing the utilization level of the current infrastructure or the average response time of
the clients in any given ‘realm’ of the virtual world. Realms are arbitrary areas within a virtual world that support a specific subset of people or subset of the
world.
E-business
In e-business, scalability can be achieved by making new servers available as needed. For example, during a peak shopping season, more virtual servers
can be made available that can cater to high shopper demand. In another example a company may experience high workloads on weekends or evenings
as opposed to early mornings and weekdays. If a company has a significantly large cloud, they could schedule computer resources to be provisioned each
evening, weekend, or during a peak season. There are more opportunities to achieve efficiencies as the cloud grows. Another aspect of this scenario
involves employing business policies to decide what applications receive higher priorities and thus more computing resources. Revenue generating
applications may be rated higher than research and development or innovation pilots.
Cloud Provisioning and Management
Automated Provisioning:
The core functionality of a cloud is its ability to automatically provision servers for innovators and to enable innovators, administrators, and others to use
that function with a Web-based interface. The role-based interface abstracts out the complexity of Tivoli Provisioning Manager, Remote Deployment
Manager, Network Installation Manager, Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), and Web services.
Typically, a pilot team needs four to twelve weeks to identify, procure, and build a pilot infrastructure and traditional time to build a security complaint
software stack so that developers can begin building or deploying applications and code. The cloud provides a framework and offering that reduces that
boarding process to approximately one hour. It has been accomplished through a role-based Web portal that allows innovators to fill out a form defining
their hardware platform, CPU, memory, storage, operating system, middleware, and team members and associated roles. This process takes about five
minutes. After submitting the request through the portal, a cloud administrator is notified and logs in to approve, modify, and/or reject the request.
Reservation and Scheduling:
Critical to an environment like a cloud is the ability to understand what your current and future capacity is to accommodate customers. Without that
understanding you cannot accurately forecast how many customers you can support, nor can you ensure that you maintain a steady pipeline of innovation.
For this reason, projects cannot board the cloud without an agreed upon end date. This date which is part of the contract (an approved request for
resources) offers an incentive for the project team to work aggressively to meet their target or risk the removal of the resources assigned. Contractual end
dates also allow cloud administrators to accurately schedule resources for future dates.
For this purpose the cloud also requires a contractual start date so that it is possible to reserve resources for a future time. Contract start dates give
innovators an accurate expectation of when they will receive their approved resources. The reservation system in the cloud provides a system of checks
and balances so that new reservations cannot be approved for resources that don’t exist or that are already committed for the specified time frame.
Open Source:
Open source solutions played an important role in the developmnet of the cloud. In particular, a couple of projects have been foundations for common
cloud services such as virtualization and parallel processing. XEN is an open-source virtual machine implementation that allows physical machines to host
multiple copies of operating systems. XEN is used in the cloud to represent machines as virtual images that can be easily and repeatedly provisioned and
deprovisioned.
Storage Architecture in the Cloud
The storage architecture of the cloud includes the capabilities of the Google file system along with the benefits of a Storage Area Network (SAN). Either
technique can be used by itself, or both can be used together as needed.
Computing without data is rare as data without computing. The combination of data and computer power is important. Computer power often is measured in
the cycle speed of a processor. Computer speed also needs to account for the number of processors. The number of processors within an SMP and the
number within a cluster may both be important. When looking at disk storage, the amount of space is often the primary measure. The number of gigabytes
or terabytes of data needed is important. But access rates are often more important. Being able to only read sixty megabytes per second may limit your
processing capabilities below your computer capabilities. Individual disks have limits on the rate at which they can process data. A single computer may
have multiple disks, or with SAN file system be able to access data over the network. So data placement can be an important factor in achieving high data
access rates. Spreading the data over multiple computer nodes may be desired, or having all the data reside on a single node may be required for optimal
performance.
The Google file structure can be used in the cloud environment. When used, it uses the disks inside the machines, along with the network to provide a
shared file system that is redundant. This can increase the total data processing speed when the data and processing power is spread out efficiently. The
Google file system is a part of storage architecture but it is not considered to be a SAN architecture. A SAN architecture relies on an adapter other than an
Ethernet in the computer nodes, and has a network similar to an Ethernet network that can host various SAN devices.
Typically a single machine has both computer power and disks. The ratio of disk capability to computer capability is fairly static. With the Google file
system, the single node’s computer power can be used against very large data by accessing the data through the network and staging it on the local disk.
Alternatively, if the problem lends itself to distribution, than many computer nodes can be used allowing their disks to also be involved. With the SAN we can
fundamentally alter the ratio between computer power and disk capability. A single SAN client can be connected to and access at high speeds, an
enormous amount of data. When more computer power is needed, more machines can be added. When more I/O capability is needed, more SAN devices
can be added. Either capability is independent of the other.
Fast write is a capability available on many SAN devices. Normal disk writes do not complete until the data has been written to disk, which involves spinning
the disk, and potentially moving the heads. With fast write, the write complete when the data reaches memory in the SAN device, long before it gets written
to disk. Certain applications will achieve significant performance boosts through fast write if the SAN implements it.
Flash copy is an instantaneous copy capability available with some SAN devices. Actually copying the data may take time, but the SAN device can complete
the physical copying after the logical copying. Being able to make copies is essential to any storage architecture. Often copies are used for purpose such
as backup, or to allow parallel processing without contention. With flash copy capabilities from the SAN, the performance of copies can be greatly improved.
Shared file systems are not part of the SAN architecture, but can be implemented on top of the SAN. Some recovery techniques rely on SAN technology to
enable failover. While the Google file system provides similar capabilities, it is not currently integrated into most failover techniques.
Piloting Innovations on a Cloud
Many companies are creating innovation initiatives and funding programs to develop innovation processes. Because innovation is an evolving topic, the
team leaders often don’t know where to start. More often than not, they look at traditional or existing collaboration tools to try to meet the requirements for
collaborative innovation. Through numerous engagements with clients, developers have discovered that collaboration tools by themselves will not yield the
desired results as effectively as having a structured innovation platform and program in place. Developers addressed this problem by developing a
comprehensive innovation platform called Innovation Factory. The Innovation Factory removes most of the barriers that innovators experience by
combining collaboration tools, search and tagging technologies, as well as site creation tools in a single unified portal.
This type of innovation platform enables innovation by putting a structure around the innovation process and providing tools for innovators and early
adopters to publish, experiment, provide feedback, and enhance innovations. The Innovation Factory is a perfect complement to cloud computing because
the innovators making new pilots and technologies available usually need servers or other computing resources in which to develop, test, and provide
those services and applications to the early adopters.
By combining cloud computing the Innovation Factory, or any other innovation platform already in use, a company can benefit from a complete solution that
provides both physical computer resources and an innovation process combined with collaboration tools. Adding cloud computing to a company’s existing
innovation process reduces the time needed to develop and deliver a product, reduces the barrier to entry, and reduces costs associated with
procurement, setup, management, and reuse of physical assets. Cloud computing should be part of every innovation process when physical or virtual
computer resources are needed for innovation pilots.
Conclusion
In today’s global competitive market, companies must innovate and get the most out of their resources to succeed. This requires enabling its employees,
business partners, and users with the platforms and collaboration tools that promote innovation. Cloud computing infrastructures are next generation
platforms that can provide tremendous value to companies of any size. They can help companies achieve more efficient use of their IT hardware and
software investments and provide a means to accelerate the adoption of innovations. Cloud computing increases profitability by improving resource
utilization. Cost are driven down by delivering appropriate resources only for the time those resources are needed. Cloud computing has enabled teams
and organizations to streamline lengthy procurement processes.
Cloud computing enables innovation by alleviating the need of innovators to find resources to develop, test, and make their innovations available to the
user community. Innovators are free to focus on the innovation rather than the logistics of finding and managing resources that enable the innovation.
Combining cloud computing with Innovation Factory provides and end-to-end collaboration environment that cloud transform organizations into innovation
power houses
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| Cover Story (Mar 2009) |
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